(CNN) - Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious leaders gathered in New York to protest advertisements that claim "Support Israel. Defeat Jihad" smattered across 10 city subways stations Monday and to debut a counter-ad that is due up in the same stations at the end of the week, according to the interfaith group.

"I am Muslim," explained Adem Carroll of the Muslim progressive traditionalist alliance on the steps of New York City's City Hall. "On a personal note, when I ride the subway and see messages smeared that demean me, I am scared."

Carroll is speaking about an advertisement originally rejected by New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority that reads: "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad."

The authority's decision to reject the ad, which was produced by a Judeo-Christian law firm, was overturned last month when a federal judge ruled the ad is protected under the First Amendment

A counter ad, funded by the United Methodist Women, reads "Hate speech is not civilized. Support peace in word and deed."

This ad will appear in the same 10 subway stations at the end of this week, according to the Harriet J. Olson, general secretary of the women's group. These posters are spread across Manhattan on almost all the lines, including popular commuter hub Grand Central Station, according to the Interfaith Center of New York.

The ad has stirred a conversation about the fine line between free speech and hate speech.

"This ad tipped the balance," the Rev. Chloe Breyer, executive director of the Interfaith Center of New York, said at the press conference Monday.

Political activist Pamela Geller, who promoted the ad with the help of her law firm the American Freedom Defense Initiative, told CNN's Erin Burnett last week, "The First Amendment protects all speech, not just ideas that we like, but ideas that we don't like."

She told CNN she submitted this ad last September when she says there was a series of anti-Israel ads running on the subway.

Geller's ad was released nearly two weeks after an anti-Islam film produced in the United State led to protests throughout the Middle East, including an attack that led to the death of U.S ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

"Never underestimate the power of hate speech" said Linda Sarsour of the Arab American Association of New York, who issued a Twitter campaign against Geller using the hashtag #mysubwayad, encouraging the public to submit new ideas for subway ads.

"We speak hundreds of languages in New York; hatred is not one of them," Sarsour said at the gathering on City Hall steps.

The interfaith group is also calling on the MTA to use revenue from payments made to promote the American Freedom Defense Initiative's ad to fund the placement of human rights posters.

soundoff(191 Responses)

For over 100 years Jews and Muslims have gotten along fine in New York. Keep the Middle East in the Middle East. Greetings to my Muslim neighbors.

October 18, 2012 at 2:07 pm |

Iqbal Khan

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCQx47kN6tI&w=640&h=360]

September 30, 2012 at 9:11 pm |

Cheryl Petersen

I liked the idealist statement," We speak hundreds of languages in New York; hatred is not one of them," said Sarsour. Ideal worth aiming for. Thanks

September 29, 2012 at 10:32 am |

WOW

"Support Israel. Defeat Jihad" . Reading the sign in the picture, please tell me how this is "hate speech"? Jihad: Islamic campaign against nonbelievers: a campaign waged by Muslims in defense of the Islamic faith against people, organizations, or countries regarded as hostile to Islam. Relentless campaign: a relentless campaign against somebody or something. To me Jihad is hate speech. So replace the name of Isreal with United States and does that now mean it is not hate speech? Is not Jihad itself hate? Come on America do we really want Sharia Law in the US?

September 27, 2012 at 2:20 pm |

hinduMithraism Christianity baseofhindufilthyracism.

Shariya is Theen Allah, consti tution of truth absolute and father of American consti tution, subordinated to truth absolute as GOD, get some education, knowledge before spewing your hinduism, absurdity, hindu, Ignorant. To learn more visit limitisthetruth,com and click on word Choice on website to open file.

September 27, 2012 at 5:17 pm |

jeru0455

This was a terribly uninformative article. The real poster reads "in a war between the civilized man and the savege, always support the civilized man." That is what people are upset about. I don't know who wrote this article, but it's just terrible. The New York Times has a much better piece on it.

September 28, 2012 at 1:36 am |

hippypoet

belief itself isn't a bad thing. i can say that honestly and believe those words. any belief that makes one want to be a better person is a grand belief to be sure! however, the belief in something unpovable full heartedly is what i find to be disconcerting. the real issue with religion is when those that believe full heartedly run a country or when the majority of the cizitens are religious. For as we all know, the majority make the rule. wether it be thru having more votes or greater numbers in your army the idea is the same, strength in numbers! But when this is the case what you get is oppession.

any religiously ran government is an oppressive one. All religions state what people should, should not, can, and can not do and even at times religions state when one should do these things. it is in its most basic function a form of social control that warps the mind of the creature being controlled so that the end result is a person who willin
gly acts in accordance to that very same oppressive government thereby making the government appear to be not controlling at all.

it is a very nice trick, but aren't tricks for children?
should we not grow up?
are dreams really worth giving reality up?
how is a hope greater then knowledge?
why aren't other things taken at face value with the same "faith"?
if anything then at least shouldn't the tenets of your faith be adhered to and be upheld?
should you stone your own children because they were dissrespectful to you?
should you kill those of differing cultures or beliefs because they have differing cultures and beliefs?
would you allow those that survive YOUR jihad to be enslaved and turned into property?
should women be viewed as property and treated as such?
how many commandments do you follow and how many do you think there are?
shouldn't the followers of the abrahamic faith know the answers to these questions?
was hope greater then knowledge?
did the dream live up to its reality?

If man made religion has all the answers?????Where is Wisdom in Global Poverty?? man made religion with a small man made god has no true Wisdom, True Wisdom made man,True Wisdom made the Sun,True Wisdom made the Whole Earth,True Wisdom Does Not Make Mistakes,man made small god makes mistakes,Wisdom is the Teacher,Knowledge is the Student,Understanding is a roadmap pathway,man made religion small god leads too no where.

Here are some known facts:
Mohammed was a pedophile-historically true.
Mohammed was a rapist-also historically true.
Mohammed was a murderer-historically true.
Mohammed was a bandit-.historically true.

How can we expect his supporters, the Arab Muslims, not to be pedophiles, rapists and murderers? All citizens that come from the democratic world need to stay away from any Muslims. Don't go near them. Don't do business with them and never trust them.

Their goal is to kill you

September 27, 2012 at 12:29 am |

sam stone

as opposed to the christian god knocking up a 13 year old without her permission?

September 27, 2012 at 10:42 am |

WOW

Or atheist killing people.

September 27, 2012 at 2:25 pm |

hinduMithraism Christianity baseofhindufilthyracism.

Only by hinduism absurdity of a hindu, ignorant from hindered gutter of hinduism, illegality called india.

September 27, 2012 at 5:20 pm |

FigureItOut

There's no such thing as "hate speech". It is all just speech. If you disagree, don't listen. You don't have the right not to be offended – you do have the right to speak your own mind in response.

September 27, 2012 at 12:06 am |

Reality

To the nitty-gritty- only for new members of this blog:-–>>>>>

What instigated the attack on the Twin Towers, Flight 93 and the Pentagon?

And what drives today's 24/7 mosque/imam-planned acts of terror and horror?

The koran, Mohammed's book of death for all infidels and Muslim domination of the world by any means.

Muslims must clean up this book removing said passages admitting that they are based on the Gabriel myth and therefore obviously the hallucinations and/or lies of Mohammed.

Until then, no Muslim can be trusted anytime or anywhere to include the NYC subways..................................

And yes the Old Testament also needs to be cleansed. Actually it has been. See

origin: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20E1EFE35540C7A8CDDAA0894DA404482 NY Times review and important enough to reiterate.

New Torah For Modern Minds (from 1.5 million Conservative Jews and their rabbis)

An excerpt from the listed review:

“Abraham, the Jewish patriarch, probably never existed. Nor did Moses. (prob•a•bly
Adverb: Almost certainly; as far as one knows or can tell).

Thomas Jefferson did an analogous rewrite of the NT. Ditto for the rewrite of the NT by the Jesus Seminarians, Professor JD Crossan in his over 20 books on the historical Jesus and related subjects and Professor Gerd Ludeman in his book, Jesus After 2000 Years, p. 694-695.

" Thomas Jefferson omitted Revelation along with most of the Biblical canon, from the Jefferson Bible, and wrote that at one time, he considered it (Revelation) as "merely the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams."

September 26, 2012 at 11:16 pm |

Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son

NItty? Are you infested with lice, troll-a-licious?

September 26, 2012 at 11:18 pm |

Reality

nitty-gritty

American Heritage Dictionary:

nit·ty-grit·ty

(nĭt'ē-grĭt'ē)
n. Informal
The specific or practical details; the heart of a matter.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/nitty-gritty#ixzz27dY5MEOO

September 26, 2012 at 11:24 pm |

Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son

Gosh, how enlightening.

You really are retarded, aren't you?

September 26, 2012 at 11:25 pm |

Reality

More nitty-gritty:

Only for the new members of this blog:

Mohammed was an illiterate, womanizing, lust and greed-driven, warmongering, hallucinating Arab, who also had embellishing/hallucinating/plagiarizing scribal biographers who not only added "angels" and flying chariots to the koran but also a militaristic agenda to support the plundering and looting of the lands of non-believers.

This agenda continues as shown by the ma-ssacre in Mumbai, the as-sas-sinations of Bhutto and Theo Van Gogh, the conduct of the seven Muslim doctors in the UK, the 9/11 terrorists, the 24/7 Sunni suicide/roadside/market/mosque bombers, the 24/7 Shiite suicide/roadside/market/mosque bombers, the Islamic bombers of the trains in the UK and Spain, the Bali crazies, the Kenya crazies, the Pakistani “koranics”, the Palestine suicide bombers/rocketeers, the Lebanese nutcases, the Taliban nut jobs, the Ft. Hood follower of the koran, and the Filipino “koranics”.

And who funds this muck and stench of terror? The warmongering, Islamic, Shiite terror and torture theocracy of Iran aka the Third Axis of Evil and also the Sunni "Wannabees" of Saudi Arabia.

Religious Rant – Stemming from one spark of life there is no division between men (nor any other living thing). Religion causes a rift where there is none. We are all part of the same chemical reaction.

Political Rant – Israel is the largest recipient of foreign aid by the USA. They sent 0 troops to Afghanistan, and 0 troops to Iraq. We don't need another war. If Israel wants one – THEY can go fight it.

September 26, 2012 at 9:21 pm |

Reality

Paying for Obamacare:

How much money would the following save the US taxpayers ?: And how many “souls” would be saved?

Saving 1.5 billion lost Muslims:
There never were and never will be any angels i.e. no Gabriel, no Islam and therefore no more koranic-driven acts of horror and terror LIKE 9/11.

– One trillion dollars over the next several years as the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan will end.

– Eighteen billion dollars/yr to Pakistan will stop.

– Four billion dollars/yr to Egypt will end.

Saving 2 billion lost Christians including the Mormons:
There were never any bodily resurrections and there will never be any bodily resurrections i.e. No Easter, no Christianity!!!

– The Mormon ti-the empire will now become taxable as will all Christian "religions" and evangelical non-profits since there is no longer any claim to being a tax-exempt religion.

– the faith-based federal projects supported by both Bush and Obama will be eliminated saving $385 million/yr and another $2 billion/yr in grants.

– Saving 15.5 million Orthodox followers of Judaism:
Abraham and Moses never existed.

– Four billion dollars/yr to Israel saved.

– All Jewish sects and non-profits will no longer be tax exempt.

Now all we need to do is convince these 3.5+ billion global and local citizens that they have been conned all these centuries Time for a YouTube,Twitter and FaceBook campaign!!!!

September 26, 2012 at 11:20 pm |

Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son

Un-reality, I wonder: are you married? What does your spouse think of you and your windy bombasts? Do you subject your mate to such onslaughts of sh!t. or have you excused your life partner from enduring your manure-stream-of-thought out of mercy?

You can go to foreignassistance (dot) gov and see the foreign aid by country and year. Israel is still the top recipient of foreign aid by 1 Billion US Dollars. They are the top recipient and sent no troops to Afghanistan nor Iraq. They are not an ally but rather a welfare state.

September 27, 2012 at 9:09 am |

Reality

Checked foreignassistance.gov. Very confusing but it appears the previous table i.e.

Mohammed was an illiterate, womanizing, lust and greed-driven, warmongering, hallucinating Arab, who also had embellishing/hallucinating/plagiarizing scribal biographers who not only added "angels" and flying chariots to the koran but also a militaristic agenda to support the plundering and looting of the lands of non-believers.

This agenda continues as shown by the ma-ssacre in Mumbai, the as-sas-sinations of Bhutto and Theo Van Gogh, the conduct of the seven Muslim doctors in the UK, the 9/11 terrorists, the 24/7 Sunni suicide/roadside/market/mosque bombers, the 24/7 Shiite suicide/roadside/market/mosque bombers, the Islamic bombers of the trains in the UK and Spain, the Bali crazies, the Kenya crazies, the Pakistani “koranics”, the Palestine suicide bombers/rocketeers, the Lebanese nutcases, the Taliban nut jobs, the Ft. Hood follower of the koran, and the Filipino “koranics”.

And who funds this muck and stench of terror? The warmongering, Islamic, Shiite terror and torture theocracy of
Ahmadinejad's Iran aka the Third Axis of Evil and also the Sunni "Wannabees" of Saudi Arabia.

Current crises:

The Sunni-Shiite blood feud (Syria and also Iraq) and the warmongering, womanizing (11 wives), hallucinating founder.

September 26, 2012 at 9:15 pm |

Atheism is not healthy for children and other living things

Prayer changes things .

September 26, 2012 at 7:17 pm |

niknak

No it doesn't, and you know it too.
Why can't you come up with some new material?
This is getting way old.

September 26, 2012 at 7:41 pm |

hal 9001

I'm sorry, "Atheism is not healthy for children and other living things", but your assertions regarding atheism and prayer are unfounded. The degree to which your assertions may represent correct statements is 0.0. To help you understand the degree to which your assertions may represent correct statements, I will access my Idiomatic Expression Equivalency module (IEE). Using my IEE module, the expression that best matches the degree to which your assertions may represent correct statements is: "TOTAL FAIL".

I see that you repeat these unfounded statements with high frequency. Perhaps the following book might help you overcome this problem:

I'm Told I Have Dementia: What You Can Do... Who You Can Turn to...
by the Alzheimer's Disease Society
.

September 26, 2012 at 10:12 pm |

Atheism is not healthy for children and other living things

Prayer really changes things
Proven

September 27, 2012 at 5:39 am |

Jesus

Prayer does not; you are such a LIAR. You have NO proof it changes anything! A great example of prayer proven not to work is the Christians in jail because prayer didn't work and their children died. For example: Susan Grady, who relied on prayer to heal her son. Nine-year-old Aaron Grady died and Susan Grady was arrested.

An article in the Journal of Pediatrics examined the deaths of 172 children from families who relied upon faith healing from 1975 to 1995. They concluded that four out of five ill children, who died under the care of faith healers or being left to prayer only, would most likely have survived if they had received medical care.

The statistical studies from the nineteenth century and the three CCU studies on prayer are quite consistent with the fact that humanity is wasting a huge amount of time on a procedure that simply doesn’t work. Nonetheless, faith in prayer is so pervasive and deeply rooted, you can be sure believers will continue to devise future studies in a desperate effort to confirm their beliefs^!

Why was king David king solomon and jesus debt free they had money on earth

September 26, 2012 at 6:41 pm |

Theen Allah Fat Mullah (the original hinduism source.....)

@hindumithra, the question was for "college educated people", do you read the post or just shoot?, corruption of a w'hore and Fat Mullah.

September 26, 2012 at 7:04 pm |

Sam Yaza

because when ever they went broke they would ether take more from their people or sack another nation,.. but Jesus was broke, Jesus was a Socialist, Va.grant, Wino, and a Witch. [fact]

Socialist= a person who follows the theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.
Va.grant=A person without a settled home or regular work who wanders from place to place and lives by begging.
Wino= A person who drinks excessive amounts of cheap wine or other alcohol, esp. one who is homeless.
Witch = teacher, healer, and mediator. and or can do magick, like walk on water, raise the dead, turn his wife into a man for one k!nk7 night

September 26, 2012 at 7:16 pm |

WASP

@200: the best guess i can give you from economics class would be no one can afford to just out right buy a home or any other large purchase, so they get a loan and sign paperwork to pay that lender back.
-next reason is people don't live within their means thus they end up owing people for unpaid bills or get loans to pay those bills and thus again they are in debt.
-if you are talking about government earned debt of a population that's mostly caused by trade. you also have military budget which tends to get out of control when competing with other nations for dominance, they guy with the biggest stick type of thing.
-then of course as the other commenter pointed out you have corruption and other closed door deals that waste money.

September 27, 2012 at 6:39 am |

hinduMithraism Christianity baseofhindufilthyracism.

How a hindu ignorant such as you call your self educated, knowledgeable, with capacity of thinking lower than a hindu, ignorant owl, wastage of time and money to send a hindu. ignorant to school.

To wasp if you looking at a home and its $300,000usd you have too make $1,500,000usd per year you have too make five times what a house or car or suv cost,Wisdom is the teacher,knowledge is the student,understanding is a roadmap pathway,too be debt free is too study Wisdom

The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.